Go with Sclerotherapy, Not Laser - Pittsburgh, PA

I've had veins since I was a teenager. Thanks...

27 Jul 2011

2 months post

I've had veins since I was a teenager. Thanks Mom! I had some larger varicose veins treated by injection several years ago but only had one spider vein treatment before I stopped going since I was feeling better and my budget was about maxed out. The downtime for those injections was about 4-5 days. Strenuous activity (per the doctor) would've opened them back up.

I have seen and heard a lot about lasers lately so I wanted to try them out. I paid $600 for a half hour spider vein laser treatment. I can say two months after the fact, overall I'm about as pleased as I would've been with a sclero treatment with the results. I am not pleased with what it took to get these results.

I have scars on some of the spots where my leg was "burnt" from the laser. They itched like CRAZY for two weeks, so I scratched off the scabs a few times, which is probably why they have round cavernous-type scars now. My legs were also swelled where the veins were for almost 3 full weeks (the 'cat scratches' folks talk about). I think the laser tech was going too fast zapping my leg because it burnt while she was doing it. It was also unbelivably painful with the zaps. They told me it would be like a bee sting and I didn't need pain meds or anesthetic. Boy were they wrong! I cried almost the entire half-hour session. When I broke my leg I didn't even cry that much. A 30 minute spider vein treatment for sclerotherapy is $120 from my local clinic. Similar for laser is $600.

Considering the intense pain of the laser, the 3x higher cost, inconvenient and unbelievably annoying itching for 2 weeks after treatment, and the few deep circular scars I have now, I would certainly not use lasers again. I highly recommend sclerotherapy though, since I've seen excellent results with it.